> As for your (**): you don't _need_ anything to identify that what
> you're transmitting is SOAP because the thing behind the request
> URI should know that.
I disagree -- unless there is a well-standardized Content-Type
that is SOAP-specific (IOW, "app/soap+xml", not "text/xml"), the
various intermediaries, security devices and so on will have a
difficult time figuring out if "/site/foo/bar.cgi" is SOAP or
a web page request.
What you are saying makes perfect sense when it goes from end-to-
end, but the picture gets more difficult as one starts adding
various SOAP and non-SOAP intermediaries along the way.
As for dispatching on the basis of the content, that's important
as well -- it's just that there are multiple levels, all the way
from TCP ports to HTTP protocol to SOAP envelopes to SOAP payloads.
Different parts of the network have different needs and capabilities
along that entire protocol stack.
\\ Eugene Kuznetsov
\\ eugene@datapower.com
\\ DataPower Technology, Inc.